ESPN pulls Williams from MNF opening

ESPN ^ | 10/4/2011 | espn.com

[New Jersey Realist]

The Hank Williams Jr. song that has opened Monday Night Football for 20 years was not part of the opening of this week's Indianapolis-Tampa Bay game after Williams made controversial comments about President Barack Obama.

Williams compared Obama to Adolf Hitler on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" show Monday morning.

ESPN, in a statement, said: "While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight's telecast."

[tflabo]

Sunday night football looking for a theme song? Although another liberal hack network.

[MrB]

The “are you a hypocrite” question would be -

has any person equating Bush with Hitler been fired from your organization?

[who knows what evil?]

He most certainly did not! Read the transcript or watch the clip, ESPN.

Notice how effective the media has been in getting Americans to believe that Williams compared Obama to Hitler? You are right...he didn't.

[gunnyg]

heh, heh....building an American folk hero...and needed at this time...

Semper Watching!

[ml/nj]

I think people were getting tired of it.

Speaking of getting tired, I planned to watch the game 'til halftime. But when the cut away for another stupid "automatic" review of a touchdown, I turned the TV off before they could cut away for a commercial.

(And I've always thought the HW MNF opening was stupid.)

ML/NJ

[KevinB]

And the liberal schmucks at ESPN have the freedom to yank Hank's "Are you ready for some football?!" opening for whatever reason they choose. There was no first amendment violation here. ...which should be obvious.

Yup, there's no such thing as a right of free speech in private industry. It's amazing how many folks don't know that.

[scooby321]

Kenny Mayne has his own show on ESPN.

Kenny Mayne's twitter account said this " "Almost Rammed Car With Palin Bumper Sticker but held up might have been kids in the car."

[Robe]

JR. should reciprocate by pulling their license to his song "Are You Ready For Some Football"

[SwatTeam]

I absolutely agree! I really miss Frank, Dandy Don and even Howard. That was real football and good commentary, not
a bunch of fluff and crap just to satisfy the pc police.

[JayAr36]

Must have the same brand of butt lickers at ESPN as in the White House. Never a word out of these righteous folk when it comes from a socialist. Too bad they can't stick to sports and STAY THE HELL OUT OF POLITICS.

[AngryJawa]

not a bunch of fluff and crap just to satisfy the pc police.

I suspect it's more about some genius Ivy League programming consultant who promised that the NFL would get higher ratings if they could just do something to attract women viewers. What a low opinion they seem to have of the intelligence of the fairer sex.

Yeah, it's teetering on the unwatchable at this point. The rank hypocrisy of the treatment of Rush Limbaugh and Hank Williams certainly does not help.

[SwatTeam]

Well, all the women I know who like football don’t like all the bs. I happen to be a woman who has watched football for decades
and have even had women over to watch with me. My husband quit watching fb when all this fluff started. And I have lost
interest because of it too. Not being able to drink beer any more might also have contributed to my disinterest. lol
I now record a game I might want to watch and ff thru all the crap later. Baseball is not over yet and that has my full attention.

[ScottinVA]

“No one seemed to mind when famous people made terrible comments about George W. Bush.”

I agree, and I like HW Jr, but publicly calling 0bama — or any other occupant of the WH “Hitler” is going to draw repercussions. Williams should’ve thought a couple steps ahead before making that comment. ESPN exercised a business decision in dropping him.

Remember, the Dixie Chicks’ careers were (rightly) never the same after they caused that flap with their comments about Bush while in London.

[ScottinVA]

Correcting own post:

but publicly calling comparing 0bama — or any other occupant of the WH to “Hitler”

[rollo tomasi]

ESPN has the right to be who they are and hire/fire at will. That said, your comparison of the Dixie Chix is totally wrong. The 'Chix' were blasted all over the news, on magazine covers, and tried to be promoted as hard as they ever have been.

What happened is that the 'Chix' audience predominately leaned "conservative" which made TV exects uncomfortable, not the what the 'Chix' said. Totalitarians hailed the 'Chix' but their audience turned their back on them which meant potential lower ratings, lower sales and nervous advertisers. In ESPN's case, there ideology quickly canned Williams, Jr, not the audience. Heck, most of the football audience probably agreed with the analogy Jr. made.

Is Hank Jr. going to get the "cover" treatment?





Are Time Magazine or another mainstream rag going to offer Hank Jr. a sympathetic spin?

[ScottinVA]

The 'Chix' were blasted all over the news, on magazine covers, and tried to be promoted as hard as they ever have been.

I get what you're saying about the Dixie Chicks being trumpeted and praised in the media... my point was directed at the loss of CD sales and fan reaction (at which I was quite pleased to see!). They never reached anywhere near their high point again.

As for ESPN's ideology, my point was Williams might've been wise to take that into account before the analogy to Hitler. But hindsight = 20/20.

[Secret Agent Man]

Normally the “shut up and sing” does apply.

However, Fox had him as a guest on their show “Fox and Friends” not to sing, but to talk.

They have a right to pull the song, but first, they are lying - he didn’t say Obama was like Hitler. Second, if someone you invite onto your talk show says something you don’t like, it’s petty to lie about it and then because of the lie of yours, slam them by messing up their business relationship.

They have a right to do it, and I have a right to say I think they are petty stupid liars.

[demshateGod]

I watched one NFL game since 2007. I’m surprised it’s still so popular, not a very good product. College football on the other hand, that’s still football, for now. I’m sick of the helmet to helmet penalties.

[ohioman]

This will probably increase Hank’s popularity with his audience who mostly hate Obama. I noticed he was also wearing his Bama hat during the interview. Roll Tide!

[Mr. Mojo]

Although Cosell did take a big of hit from the PC police back in ‘83 when he famously remarked (about Redskins’ wide receiver Alvin Garrett) “that little monkey gets loose, doesn’t he?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVScwog05Xw